Att Velocity Rep - No Exit row seating for VA tix on EY - WHY???

[blingy90]

Hi Guys,

I wanted to start this new thread on the back of a previous thread about seating on EY when booked as a VA ticket. An issue which I have discovered and as others have (which was mentioned in the thread) was regarding exit row seating on EY metal flights, and how VA ticket holders cannot book this seat.

My situation was that I recently booked a SYD-AUH-Europe return leg, all VA ticket, VA metal to AUH, EY metal for the shorter european legs. I obtained the EY PNR for the booking, contacted EY and requested to book exit row seating. I was told by the representative that since I was on a VA ticket could not book these seats.

Not to impressive! Given Etihad is a major partner, both use Sabre & the fact that you have a passenger willing to pay extra for a seat - yet for some reason cannot be done, really stumps me!

I was wondering if the VA rep on here could comment, offer any advice or if any other posters have had similar experiences or know a way around this? If EY offered the exit row seating for no cost, I could understand why they would restrict it to their customers. However when there is a charge involved, I can't work out why it is restricted to only EY passengers? Doesn't bode well for VA FF members.

Cheers guys!

 

[straitman]

Hi Guys,

I wanted to start this new thread on the back of a previous thread about seating on EY when booked as a VA ticket. An issue which I have discovered and as others have (which was mentioned in the thread) was regarding exit row seating on EY metal flights, and how VA ticket holders cannot book this seat.

My situation was that I recently booked a SYD-AUH-Europe return leg, all VA ticket, VA metal to AUH, EY metal for the shorter european legs. I obtained the EY PNR for the booking, contacted EY and requested to book exit row seating. I was told by the representative that since I was on a VA ticket could not book these seats.

Not to impressive! Given Etihad is a major partner, both use Sabre & the fact that you have a passenger willing to pay extra for a seat - yet for some reason cannot be done, really stumps me!

I was wondering if the VA rep on here could comment, offer any advice or if any other posters have had similar experiences or know a way around this? If EY offered the exit row seating for no cost, I could understand why they would restrict it to their customers. However when there is a charge involved, I can't work out why it is restricted to only EY passengers? Doesn't bode well for VA FF members.

Cheers guys!

In case he has missed it I have sent a link to the VA rep for you.

 

[blingy90]

Cheers for that straitman. Kinda didn't want to start a new thread, but thought the previous discussion in the other thread might be missed by the VA rep.

Thanks

 

[Velocity Frequent Flyer]

Hi Blingy90, we realise it's not an ideal situation at the moment. There's a system issue which we're working through with EY and while we can't offer you an exit row seat until it's resolved, we can help with a seat preference if you give us a call. Sorry about that.

 

[blingy90]

Thanks for the reply Velocity,

Good to hear its on the radar for VA & EY and realising its not a good situation. Any timeframe on it being resolved?

Unfortunately my seat preference would be the exit row haha. EY have allocated other seats for me, so all good on that front thank you for the offer!

Cheers

 

[bullerdude]

Hi Blingy90, we realise it's not an ideal situation at the moment. There's a system issue which we're working through with EY and while we can't offer you an exit row seat until it's resolved, we can help with a seat preference if you give us a call. Sorry about that.

VFF - is VA also considering allowing Gold and Platinum members to get access to EY's preferential seating zones? As a high status member I would certainly value this benefit and it would provide a good reason to book VA/EY services over other carriers.

 

[Caversham04]

Hi Guys,

I wanted to start this new thread on the back of a previous thread about seating on EY when booked as a VA ticket. An issue which I have discovered and as others have (which was mentioned in the thread) was regarding exit row seating on EY metal flights, and how VA ticket holders cannot book this seat.

My situation was that I recently booked a SYD-AUH-Europe return leg, all VA ticket, VA metal to AUH, EY metal for the shorter european legs. I obtained the EY PNR for the booking, contacted EY and requested to book exit row seating. I was told by the representative that since I was on a VA ticket could not book these seats.

Not to impressive! Given Etihad is a major partner, both use Sabre & the fact that you have a passenger willing to pay extra for a seat - yet for some reason cannot be done, really stumps me!

I was wondering if the VA rep on here could comment, offer any advice or if any other posters have had similar experiences or know a way around this? If EY offered the exit row seating for no cost, I could understand why they would restrict it to their customers. However when there is a charge involved, I can't work out why it is restricted to only EY passengers? Doesn't bode well for VA FF members.

Cheers guys!

Thanks for starting the new thread, and to the Velocity rep for the rapid pick-up and response.

If the fix that the Velocity rep mentions is getting the Virgin and Etihad systems to talk (which might take a while!), could something be sorted out in the meantime at the Etihad end where the Etihad-specific PNR (which Virgin can supply) links properly to the booking for the Exit Row seat; the inability to do this was apparently why the Etihad rep couldn't take my seat booking?

I'm happy to spend 5 minutes on the phone to sort make the seat booking if it guarantees me an Exit Row seat. Otherwise, the Etihad website statement that you can book and pay for exit row seats is slightly mis-leading (in as much as it only actually applies to bookings via Etihad) - I knew that I'd drop from PE on SYD-AUH down to economy for AUH-LHR but was happy to do this on the basis of being able to book Exit Row seats (with ExpertFlyer showing that several were available). Being assigned a random economy seat doesn't encourage me to take this route next time

 

[notzac]

Hi Blingy90, we realise it's not an ideal situation at the moment. There's a system issue which we're working through with EY and while we can't offer you an exit row seat until it's resolved, we can help with a seat preference if you give us a call. Sorry about that.

VFF - is this system issue you're working with EY on going to result in EY's systems seeing Velocity status? It would be great if that could happen..

 

[blingy90]

Thanks for starting the new thread, and to the Velocity rep for the rapid pick-up and response.

If the fix that the Velocity rep mentions is getting the Virgin and Etihad systems to talk (which might take a while!), could something be sorted out in the meantime at the Etihad end where the Etihad-specific PNR (which Virgin can supply) links properly to the booking for the Exit Row seat; the inability to do this was apparently why the Etihad rep couldn't take my seat booking?

I'm happy to spend 5 minutes on the phone to sort make the seat booking if it guarantees me an Exit Row seat. Otherwise, the Etihad website statement that you can book and pay for exit row seats is slightly mis-leading (in as much as it only actually applies to bookings via Etihad) - I knew that I'd drop from PE on SYD-AUH down to economy for AUH-LHR but was happy to do this on the basis of being able to book Exit Row seats (with ExpertFlyer showing that several were available). Being assigned a random economy seat doesn't encourage me to take this route next time

Agree with this post wholeheartedly!

I can't work out how when you have the EY PNR - that you still cannot book the exit row.

I also agree about the EY website. If it can only be booked by EY ticket holders, I think it should state this somewhere. Like Caversham04, I too booked PE (and knew I would be in Y for the shorter EY legs), but was happy about this as I knew I could pay for the exit rows (well, thought I could!). It takes the gloss off going through this route, especially when you have passengers who are prepared to pay more for a premium route.

 

[bullerdude]

Interesting enough if you book onto the VA plane SYD-AUH via the EY website you can select seats during the booking, including exit rows. I'm pretty sure you can also select seats on VA flights when booking through Delta on US flights.

Yet when booking on VA partners flights from the VA site you cannot select any seats on Etihad, Delta, AirNZ etc... very poor form VA!

At the very least, having a process for the Gold/Plat call centres to be able to select premium seats on your partners would suffice.

 

[eastwest101]

At the very least, having a process for the Gold/Plat call centres to be able to select premium seats on your partners would suffice.

Agree with this here - or - I don't know, maybe having some sort of computer reservation system that allows you to book and select seats of other partner airlines that use the same computer reservation system? Oh wait.....

 

[Caversham04]

Uh-oh - just checked ExpertFlyer ahead of AUH-LHR on Sunday. The plane has suddenly filled up relative to earlier in the week.

I originally booked PE (knowing I would drop to Economy for this leg, but believing I could book an Exit Row seat). I have just succeeded with an UpgradeMe bid for SYD-AUH so will actually be in business. At least ExpertFlyer is still showing plenty of exit row seat as vacant, so I'm hoping I can snaffle one of them when checking in at ADL or in the lounge in SYD....... If I drop back down to a random middle seat in economy for AUH-LHR because of the cr@pness of the Virgin / Etihad systems, I am going to be EXTREMELY annoyed........:evil:

Virgin - PLEASE YOUR SYSTEMS OUT ASAP

Yes - I know I'm shouting...

 

[Caversham04]

Thanks for starting the new thread, and to the Velocity rep for the rapid pick-up and response.

If the fix that the Velocity rep mentions is getting the Virgin and Etihad systems to talk (which might take a while!), could something be sorted out in the meantime at the Etihad end where the Etihad-specific PNR (which Virgin can supply) links properly to the booking for the Exit Row seat; the inability to do this was apparently why the Etihad rep couldn't take my seat booking?

I'm happy to spend 5 minutes on the phone to sort make the seat booking if it guarantees me an Exit Row seat. Otherwise, the Etihad website statement that you can book and pay for exit row seats is slightly mis-leading (in as much as it only actually applies to bookings via Etihad) - I knew that I'd drop from PE on SYD-AUH down to economy for AUH-LHR but was happy to do this on the basis of being able to book Exit Row seats (with ExpertFlyer showing that several were available). Being assigned a random economy seat doesn't encourage me to take this route next time

A quick post-trip report.

As WP, I managed to ask the lady in the First Class Lounge to change my seat to the only remaining exit row seat for the AUH-LHR leg. Unfortunately, it was a middle seat, but a quick chat with the lady in the window seat resulted in a swap (many thanks to whoever she was). The economy seats on the Etihad plane were unbelievably narrow and in the middle seat (as a 6ft+ second-row rugby player), I was overhanging both of the armrests, as well as having my hips touching both sides of the seat. In the window seat, I could at least lean to the right and avoid taking up too much of the shared space.

In summary:
ADL-SYD: used one of the Platinum upgrades to business. Good seat, good in-flight service. Very happy with this leg.
SYD-AUH: Upgraded from PE to Business via a successful UpgradeMe bid. Good seat in row 5, very good service and food. Very happy with this leg.
AUH-LHR: Very narrow Economy seat. Flight only bearable because it was an Exit Row seat hence good legroom. In a standard row, the combination of narrow seat and what looked like mediocre seat pitch would make the journey almost unbearable.

Would I fly this route again, as opposed to my usual ADL-xSIN-LHR route on Singapore Airlines (with flights deliberately chosen to allow the booking of Exit Row seats)? Yes, but ONLY when the Virgin / Etihad system issues have been sorted out so that I can book the Exit Row seats on Etihad for AUH-LHR. There's no way on earth I would wedge myself into a non-exit seat on the Etihad flight for 8 hours.